Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

1. In FOI2024 03180 (available here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n...), the Department released data about the numbers of Universal Credit cases where decision making had been paused and the number of cases where payment had been made in reliance on the judgment in SSWP v AT [2023] EWCA Civ 1307. At the time of that response (dated 31/01/2024, those numbers were:

"i)The numbers of claims or awards where decision making has been stayed to await the eventual outcome of the SSWP v AT litigation stands at 2816.

ii)The number of claims or awards where the SSWP has applied the SSWP v AT judgments as not to do so would cause hardship stands at 83."

2. Despite the fact that the SSWP v AT litigation concluded on 07/02/2024, when the Supreme Court dismissed an application by SSWP to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, a further FOI response (in this case FOI2024 41724 - https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...) indicated that DWP staff were still, at the time that response was dated (07/06/2024), following guidance (previously released under FOI2023 63218) which instructed them to stay decision making in cases similar to SSWP v AT and only to unpause decision making in cases where the appellant raised hardship issues.

3. Given that DWP staff have continued to follow that guidance, I would be grateful if you could now provide an update for the figures released under FOI2024 03180: in other words, for the latest date for which the figure is held please provide:

a) The number of claims or awards where decision making has been stayed because of the guidance released under FOI2024 03180 (either total numbers or numbers since 31/01/2024).

b) The number of claims or awards where the SSWP has applied SSWP v AT and that has resulted in a positive award (ie has not paused decision making due to hardship and awarded benefit)- again either total numbers or numbers since 31/01/2024.

Many thanks for your help.

Yours faithfully,

Martin Williams